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The Black Paladin
The History of The Black Paladin Long centuries ago, in the time of good King Arthur, one of the greatest enemies of Camelot and the knights of the Round Table was the House of de Morphant, a family of French knights so black-hearted and cruel that people said Quand il pleut, le monde pleure pour les méfaits de Morphant (“When it rains, the world is weeping for the de Morphant’s deeds”). And the most wicked of all the scions of de Morphant was Giles, known far and wide as the Black Paladin for his dark armor and even darker soul. Many of Arthur’s best and strongest knights came against the Black Paladin only to have their bloody heads sent back to the King. With his deadly mace Broyeur D’Espoir (“Crusher Of Hope”), his terrible sword Consammateur des Ombres (“Eater Of Shadows”), and an enchanted suit of armor that let him vanish from one spot and appear somewhere else, the Black Paladin was virtually invincible. When King Arthur heard that Giles de Morphant was marching on a French abbey to sack and pillage it, he sent his greatest knight, Sir Lancelot, at the head of a column of noble knights to stop the Black Paladin once and for all. The clash between Lancelot and de Morphant was fierce; mighty blows were given and received by both knights. After a day of fighting, the two parted, exhausted and bloody, but the Black Paladin had the better of the battle. His men routed Lancelot’s knights, and though badly injured himself, he had dealt Lancelot so great a wound he felt certain his foe would die. Exultant despite his pain, he proceeded to the abbey. Finding that the nuns had fled because of how Lancelot delayed him, he flew into a rage and ordered the entire building put to the torch. Meanwhile, the fleeing nuns came to Lancelot’s encampment, where the tender ministrations of one of them, Elaine, healed Lancelot’s wound. By the time the Black Paladin and his army returned, Lancelot was ready for them. And this time de Morphant’s power and black magic did not avail him — Lancelot triumphed, leaving the Black Paladin face down in the muck of the battlefield. But de Morphant did not die. Through malice he clung to life. After the battle had passed away, his lover, the witch Chantal, possessed of powerful sorcery, came to him. Unable to heal him as fully as Elaine had Lancelot, she worked a spell to preserve him, unchanged, until “he who is as your brother shalt awaken thee.” Then she placed him in his secret tomb, long prepared against just such a day, and in despair and anguish took her own life. Fast forward to 1993. John Black, an archaeology professor from Marquette University, was backpacking across France when he discovered something in a dark, tiny patch of forest — a tomb! It was old and ruined, with a fallen ceiling and all the walls partially collapsed, but clearly it was someone’s sepulchre. Had he bothered to talk to the local people, he would have learned he was in La Forêt du Chevalier Noir, the Forest of the Black Knight, and that they shunned it as cursed ground and a place of great evil. Eager to find out more, Black clambered through the ruins until he found the coffin. With a little bit of struggling, he managed to get the stone lid off . Inside was a corpse — an amazingly well preserved one. As he brushed dirt and dust off the face, he tried to translate the inscription on the inside of the coffin, speaking it out loud to make it easier. With a start, the corpse’s eyes opened! Before Black could react, Giles de Morphant’s powerful right hand was about his throat. The next several hours were a haze of pain, as the Black Paladin tortured him. De Morphant discovered, to his satisfaction, that his lover’s spell had prepared him for his new life; he could speak the man’s strange English. And the prophecy had run true; the man was almost his twin. When he had learned enough to impersonate John Black, de Morphant slew him and walked out into a new world — a world of knights armored in gaudy skintight clothes with powers exceeding even his lover’s wizardry. But he had slain the knights of his own day, and could just as easily slay these.